Sulla’s soldiers backed his march on Rome primarily because they feared their rival Marius would replace them and deny them the spoils of the war against Mithridates. This moment marks a crucial shift where legions began acting as private militias loyal to a commander's personal and financial interests, not the Republic's.

Despite being a hardened political operator, Marius couldn't conceive that a Roman general would attack his own capital. This cognitive failure, rooted in deeply ingrained tradition, left him defenseless against Sulla's unprecedented act, highlighting how norms are broken by a single ruthless actor willing to shatter them.

Rather than siding with the government or rebels, General Strabo camped his army outside Rome to see who would offer the best deal. His self-interest and independent military power, culminating in the murder of his replacement, showed that Sulla was not an anomaly but a symptom of a collapsing system where generals acted as autonomous warlords.

The Roman Republic's health rapidly declined when political disagreements escalated into branding rivals as outlaws. First Sulla targeted Marius, then the consul Octavius did the same to Cinna. This practice destroyed pluralism and normalized civil violence, showing how extreme rhetoric can dismantle political institutions.

Upstart Italian rulers, lacking noble lineage, adopted Roman art, architecture, and scholarship as propaganda. This created an aura of classical greatness and stability, making them seem like legitimate successors to the Caesars rather than mere tyrants who had seized power through a coup.

Counterintuitively, when Cesare Borgia conquered cities and wiped out local rulers, he was beloved by the common people. By installing a regime free from local factionalism, he delivered neutral justice for the first time in generations, making his brutal rule seem preferable.

An ideologue, even an anarchist advocating against the state, may support a massive state action if it serves a higher strategic purpose—in this case, disrupting a system they oppose. The perceived hypocrisy is dismissed as irrelevant when compared to the desired outcome, framing it as a solution, not a preferred method of governance.

Even with overwhelming military force, the samurai leader Yoritomo sought the cloistered emperor's endorsement. This provided a "constitutional" veil, making his seizure of power more palatable to the court and public, demonstrating that symbolic legitimacy is vital even in a military-first state.

To build support for a war of annihilation, the influential Roman senator Cato ended every single speech, regardless of topic, with the phrase "Carthage must be destroyed." This relentless repetition created a political "drumbeat of war" that normalized a radical policy and fostered public support.